This invention relates to a page-oriented reproduction apparatus which enables multiple sets of copies to be made or transmitted via a network while maintaining the quality of a scanned original or extrinsically received page image.
In recent years, various kinds of information handling systems (IHS) have been developed and widely adopted in offices and homes. Examples of such information handling systems include personal computers (PCS) of a general purpose type. Computers of this type execute various application programs, such as word processing, spreadsheet, and communication programs, and may allow users to do jobs on a display screen (i.e., xe2x80x9cdesktopxe2x80x9d). A computer user can also input data and edit documents by means of a keyboard and a mouse.
A printer is another example of an IHS by which edited data are placed onto paper. In this regard, a printer is considered a special purpose computer that must be instructed to place text, images, and the like on a page in precise detail. One approach has been to use a mark-up language embedded in the text and recognizable by the printer. The mark-up language itself comprises short commands and parameters interpreted by the printer control unit. This language is also known as a page description language (PDL). The language may be heavily formatted, stylized, or templated. This merely means that formatting function and complexity may be variously shared between the PDL and the printer controller. It should be appreciated that in today""s world of diverse networks of clients and servers, page images with embedded PDL may be stored and transmitted within and without the network for serial or concurrent publication on diverse page-oriented output devices. These include bit-mapped-oriented raster image devices such as facsimile and video screens, in addition to vectored devices such as printers.
A still further example of information handling systems is a copier for reproducing original images read by a scanner onto paper. Whereas printers and facsimile machines handle printing information in a data format, such as PDL, which can be transferred on-line, conventional analog-type copiers optically copy scanned images as they are. On the other hand, digital copiers, which have recently become widely used, print scanned analog images by a digital electrophotographic method after the images have been digitized.
Copiers and conventional image facsimile machines use different methods of reproducing from printers and PS (PostScript) facsimile machines. In the former, images in the original document are captured by analog scan; degradation of the print quality in the output is unavoidable because the original data are distorted or lost in the course of scanning. On the other hand, there is no factor for degradation of the print quality in the data input process in the latter because the source data are digital, such as PDL data.
Multifunction peripherals (MFPs) that especially handle digital data also combine the functions of a printer, a facsimile machine, and a copier. These have been only recently introduced. When equipped with a communication interface, a digital MFP can operate in a network and exchange printing and reproducing information with other apparatuses. An MFP""s functions include:
(1) Reading an image of an original document by a scanner and reproducing it on another sheet of paper. In making a reproduction, expansion/reduction, trimming, composition, and modification of images may be applied.
(2) Receiving on-line data from a PC connected by a cable for printing.
(3) Exchanging on-line data with a facsimile machine or a PC connected via a network, and printing received on-line data.
(4) Copying an image read by means of a scanner onto another sheet of paper and converting a read image into on-line data for further transmission on the network.
(5) Saving acquired printed information in the MFP""s own local disk or a remote disk on the network.
With a digital MFP, a scanned image may, for example, be sent to a server machine (database server) via a network such as the Internet, an Intranet, or a LAN such as an Ethernet or token-ring network. In other words, the use of a digital MFP facilitates central control of user documents and files on the network at a particular server. Digital MFPs are now being developed and commercialized mainly by information equipment and copier manufacturers. For example, parts of Fuji Xerox""s Able series of Fuji Xerox and Canon""s Pixel series are digital MFPs. Among printers, products that implement some of the functions of digital MFPs have also been introduced. For example, Hewlett Packard announced in November 1996 a laser printer LaserJet 5Si copier of the type that can be operated in a LAN environment.
As previously mentioned, PDL is a language describing printed images to a page printer, such as a laser printer. More specifically, it is a language (expression protocol) indicating which parts of a page contain text characters and which parts contains graphic images. A printer generates a printed image in its internal memory in accordance with the PDL data, and processes it for printing. PDL also includes a protocol for describing bitmap data. Major PDLs include Hewlett Packard""s PCL, Adobe""s PostScript, Canon""s LIPS, IBM""s PAGES and IPDS, and many others.
Incidentally, there was heretofore a requirement to preserve the original print quality in reproducing a document and original texts. For instance, a user of a copier normally wants the quality of the original to be retained in the copy. When the image information is digital, as in PDL, there is no chance of the data being distorted or lost when sending/receiving information containing images. It will therefore be possible in such cases to maintain good print quality by means of PDL data that describe the original data of printout.
The printing methods used by copiers and conventional image facsimile machines are different from those used by printers and PS (PostScript) facsimile machines. In the former, an image of the original is captured by an analog scan, and thus degradation of the print quality in the output is unavoidable because some of the original data are distorted or lost in the course of scanning.
On the other hand, it is difficult to ensure the print quality of the original in reproductions obtained by means of copier or image facsimile machines that capture an image of the original by analog scanning. This is because errors in optical systems and noise are inevitably involved when the original image (which consists of analog data) is optically read by a scanner and digitized. Errors inherent in the AD conversion may also be involved, particularly when a copy of a master is used as an original for copying and a copy so obtained is further copied, and the error and noise contents increase each time so that the quality is degraded to far below the print quality of the original. While a master needs to be reproduced accurately, the control of the master would be quite a job if it were brought out every time a copy was made. The problem of print quality similarly exists when a facsimile machine transmits an original, or when a document is scanned for filing in a database server.
It is an object of this invention to provide an improved reproduction apparatus and a method of controlling the same for reproducing text or images from an original document obtained by image scanning.
It is another object to provide an improved copier of a type in which an original document is received page by page for copying and transmission to a network, and which enables multiple sets of copies to be made and transmitted to the network while maintaining original document quality.
The foregoing objects are believed satisfied by a method and apparatus for managing a page-responsive hardcopy and softcopy reproduction and retransmission facility in which the facility includes a page-oriented storage arrangement. The method steps include electronically imaging a hardcopy original page or receiving an electronic page image from an extrinsic source. Next, it is necessary to ascertain from the electronic page image the presence of page identification indicia. After that, a comparison match is made between any detected indicia with indicia representing addressable page images recorded in the storage arrangement. In the absence of any ascertained identification indicia or in the presence of a comparison indicia mismatch, a hardcopy reproduction or a softcopy transmission of the electronic page image is conducted. Lastly, in the presence of a comparison indicia match, the previously recorded electronic image with the same indicia is accessed from the storage arrangement, and the accessed image is either reproduced in hardcopy or transmitted in softcopy.
In the event of a comparison mismatch of indicia, the electronic page image may be written into the storage facility as indexed by its page identification indicia and the facility operated in an adaptive mode. This adaptive mode would extend to all recurrences of hardcopy or softcopy requests for the same page or other pages recorded in the storage arrangement.